102,200 miles -- new make-up filter

i wanted to change the make-up filter the last time i changed my air filter, but the auto parts store of that moment didn't have them.

just picked up one, and a spare just for the future ...

... and a funny thing happened, both the manager, and the guy who rang me up, asked what they were for and how they worked ... so at least i don't feel like a complete idiot when i had no idea what they were three years ago.

$6

the continual car joins the chrysler high milers club

i was poking around the 'net looking for a posting i'd made on a public board when my original del sol turned 100,000 miles and stumbled across chrysler's high milers club.  i give them my name and VIN, they give me a pewter license plate bracket.  fair enough.

i filled out their online form early this AM and got this auto-reply before noon.

Dear b1:

Thank you for contacting the Chrysler Customer Assistance Center.

We are pleased to learn of the odometer reading of more than 100,000
miles. We trust you will enjoy many more miles in your 2008 Chrysler PT
Cruiser. Your requested has been forwarded for further consideration.

Thanks again for your email.

Sincerely,

Eileen

Customer Service Representative
Chrysler Customer Assistance Center

i don't care how dopey it is, i like it ... and you can think of this license bracket in one of three ways:

• it's free
  =or=
• it merely cost me $41,000 (and gave me free use of a car for five years)
  =or=
• this is my prize for not completely gutting the continual car when i hit that piece of retread on I-15 at 80mph a few months ago

the frame uses both the word "chrysler" and the "pentastar" logo -- not surprising since it's making reference to the corporation that built these steeds of global degradation -- it's cool to be so old skool.  (of course that doesn't keep some of the dodge bigots on the forums from complaining ... for some reason some of those guys don't like to admit they drive chryslers ... i'll bet the bugatti people don't like to admit they're driving volkswagens either.)

car expense crossover point

i have now spent more on everything having to do with my car (maintenance, upkeep, gas, insurance, tolls, parking fees, etc.) than i originally spent on my car itself.

102,000 miles - towing begins

i've had a curt trailer hitch installed on the continual car.  it's there to tow a very small harbor freight trailer with a tongue extension.  and the reason all this stuff is there is so i can start towing a kayak (and the reason i'm getting that is my intention is to boat the length of the MS river in the medium future).

i chose this hitch because it was:

• in stock
• bearing good online reviews
• more highly recommended by the seller (then again, he had it in stock and didn't have to order a new one)
• didn't require drilling of the car frame

including installation (which also involved bringing the electrics to the back of the car), the hitch was around $400.  i'll be adding that number to my TVC since the apparatus essentially a part of the car now.

to me, the hitch feels a bit pricey, but it's evened out by the amazing deal i got on my trailer.  the sophisticated version of an erector set package was on sale for $180 and i was able to score an additional 20% discount (using a coupon from my entertainment book, of all places), for a total that's a touch more than $140.

compare that to what i paid for a tongue extension (essentially a single piece of a stop sign pole): $100.

when i asked my brother why the tongue was so expensive, he said it's about the price you'd expect -- it was the trailer that was incredibly cheap.  he also said that the trailer is surprisingly high quality ... big words from someone with several automotive patents to his name.

i will not be adding the trailer price to the TVC since it's not really part of the price of the car ... and could conceivably be towed by someone else (although i don't have plans along those lines).

starting to tow with the continual car presents some problems (and is the reason i just keep going on and on here).  the owner's manual (OM) makes a few passing references to maintenance adjustments needed due to towing as well as some different driving behaviors.

it's worth noting that i've never had a dealer even hint that they might not honor the service contract (in fact, i've had the opposite happen), but as the car gets older -- especially since it's now over 100,000 miles -- it's not inconceivable that there could be some pressure to not honor the contract (never forgetting, of course, that transmission failures would be covered under the lifetime powertrain warranty, not the service contract wrap) ... and i can't let that happen.  it runs counter to the very idea of the continual car.

according to the service contract, i have to maintain the car according to the OM.  in that vein and spirit i'm making notes here so i know how to behave in the future (and i have immediate reference material if i'm ever challenged in the future).

[do note the ironic catch: this trailer isn't really towing -- or more precisely, it's not the kind of towing they mean when they're making reference to it in the manual.  if you load a trailer correctly, between 60 and 65% of the weight should be in front of the center line on the rear wheel (OM, page 348).  loading in this manner gives a tongue weight on the vehicle is 10 to 15%.  assuming the trailer is 100 pounds, and the kayak is 100 pounds, this is an additional 20 pounds of tongue weight applied directly to the car.  considering that the maximum gross trailer weight is 1000 pounds (347), this is laughably small.]

i wasn't towing at all before, but i am (no matter how lightly) now.  my responsibilities as an owner change and i wanted to record them here for future reference.  unfortunately, the arrangement of towing information in the OM is fairly haphazard ... i'll lay it out here, then re-organize it for my practical use.

the following is the raw data as it's published in the OM.

* (page 409) under schedule A, automatic transmission fluid doesn't need to be changed with a turbo.  under maintenance schedule B, tranny fluid should be changed every 60,000 miles only under the condition of,  "... trailer towing where the vehicle is driven regularly for more than 45 minutes of continuous operation."  on page 354 we have, "the automatic transmission fluid and filter should be changed if you REGULARLY tow a trailer for more than 45 minutes of continuous operation."  (their emphasis -- both cases)

*   (355) "check the automatic transmission fluid level before towing."  (abbreviated from 408) before checking the fluid, wipe the area around the dipstick clean to eliminate the possibility of dirt entering the transaxle.  wipe the dipstick and measure according to "hot" or "cold."

* (293-4) the turbocharger has to be allowed to cool down at idle:

• 0 minutes under "normal" driving conditions
• 3 minutes with "aggressive/heavy load"
• 5 minutes for "trailer tow"

* (355) in city driving while towing: "when stopped for short periods of time, put transmission in NEUTRAL."

* (abbreviated 299) "when frequent transaxle shifting occurs using the DRIVE/OVERDRIVE range, such as when operating the vehicle under heavy loading conditions (...towing trailers...), use the [3] range."  no big deal here ... i already do this when driving when i don't tow (usually when i cross the rockies).

* (347) maximum gross trailer weight is 1000 pounds.  my trailer is well under this weight.  even if loaded to the 870 pound capacity, the trailer might just barely be in that range.

consolidating all this and putting it into a collection of reasonable behavior means i'll be:

• checking the transmission fluid and all tire pressures (35psi for the car, 60 for the trailer) every time before i tow.
• changing the transmission fluid at 160K miles.
  you could argue that i'm chancing it a bit by doing this, but i have strong reasons and ways to show that i maybe/probably don't even have to do it then.  at my current mileage rate (which may go up), i'll have to do this flush in about three years (which would also be well ahead of my next powertrain inspection).  i'll have to make a decision further out about what my next change schedule would be, but i might make it 100K miles from there.
• idling in neutral when stopped while towing.
• cooling down for three minutes before every shut down.
  this is two minutes short of their OM five, BUT the trailer is very light AND the trailer tires are rated at 55mph anyway (not forgetting that CA law is 55mph for cars towing trailers).  it's not like chrysler would ever be able to know whether i was doing the cool down procedure or not anyway (not to mention that even if i did fry my turbo by not cooling, it would still be covered by the powertrain warranty).  the funny thing is that doing this will probably end up making the towing of a kayak trailer with my car actually be better than normal driving ... because i'll be driving slower on the highway AND cooling down afterward.

i'm also going to keep track of the number of miles i tow in the side bar ... more out of curiosity than anything else.

quote of the moment

"Remember, a car is a necessity!"
-- brakemasters.com website

100,433 new rear brakes

on the last couple of oil changes, the shops have noted my rear brakes getting worn (the last change told me i had 2 mm on the rear pads).  i'm currently building a trailer (in order to tow a kayak -- can't put a roof rack on a rag top), so i wanted to get the work done before i hooked up the extra dragging weight.

i thought i'd had the rear brakes done before (the lifetime guarantee is the reason i returned to brake masters), but it turned out that those were the fronts (not surprisingly).

while i was at the shop, they suggested flushing the brake fluid as well ... and of course they would, this is a major up-sell for repair shops ... but as i thought about it, i realized two things: for one, i haven't yet had the brake fluid change; but more importantly, i don't remember ever seeing it in the owner's manual.

i told them to go ahead and do it, and during my two hour wait, i looked through the owner's manual ... sure enough, it's not there ... which i find very very odd.

now here's a funny thing ... my original front brake pads went 70K miles, but got worn enough that when they were replaced, the rotors had to be replaced as well ... the backs now had gone 100K miles, but did not have to have the rotors replaced ... odder still, they show my fronts as only having 2% wear, even though they've gone half the distance that more than wore them out before.

i don't get it.  i don't even pretend that i get it.  nevertheless, i can't complain about getting that kind of mileage out of brakes on a car that:

1. is so heavy.
2. has driven (and parked) that much in san francisco.
3. has made that many mountain pass drives -- both to CO and CA.

i had a couple errands i wanted to get done today and on my way out the door forgot to check for coupons ... could've saved myself $25 if i had*.

$278, and i now have lifetime pads on the front and the back.  still need to replace my plugs and the next oil change will also need a timing belt and radiator flush ... that'll be more than a grand.

*not that it matters on a day like today -- that's a $500 winner!

the big 1, son

100K miles...as I was rolling out of the dam short film festival in boulder city, NV.
no longer eligible for free rentals on service, nor roadside assistance, which means I've gotta get a moderately harder core AAA policy (my desert drives often take me across MANY miles of uninhabited american landscape).

from this point forward, cancellation of my service contract is worth $25.

so far, so good.

99,413 mile service

what i'd like to do is get a timing belt change before i lose my free-rental-on-service at 100K miles (the service itself is due at 102K) ... unfortunately i'm currently in CA and the prices out here are considerably higher than NV (as they are with everything ... and part of the reason i moved) ... and it's possible that by the time i get back home i will have turned over 100K miles.

so ... i was due for an oil change anyway and used one from my package at "my jeep chrysler dodge" in salinas (they said it was the last one in my pack, but i should have one more) ... i waited for an hour (switching the TV in the lobby to "goldfinger" while i waited, thank you very much) and they came back out to say that i had a wheel bearing going bad ... this doesn't surprise me much since my car has been sounding like small aircraft on liftoff for quite awhile now ... but i'd always assumed that was from a bad camber alignment on my wheels (from a local goodyear place where i got lifetime alignment, and they have summarily gone out of business) ... it was a nice catch by my chrysler (even though the form says "customer states wheel bearing noise," that's not true -- they just found it on their own).

$100 deductible for it?  no problem.  i even asked the enterprise rental guy to give me a FIAT sitting on the lot (further feeding my need) and after a tiny bit of back-and-forth ("we have to give you a chrysler, jeep or dodge."  "um, chrysler is owned by FIAT ... see the 'C' in the FIAT VIN?  that means 'chrysler'"), i got it.

when i got my car back, and the growl is gone ... it'll make my drive back to vegas much more pleasant.

thank you my jeep chrysler dodge ... even if you have a dopey name.

$100 deductible

$335 in SCR ($300 on the wheel bearing/hub wheel and service ... $35 for [what well may be my last on this contract] rental).

{this is a cross-over moment of sorts for my service contract ... i've now saved twice as much as my contract originally cost.}